p.7 #1 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
carstenw wrote:
I would love to start printing again, but for the life of me, I have not been able to unclog my R2400. I am considering trashing it and getting the 3880, but the spectre of clogging with that device too is holding me back. I wish they would not clog, it pi$$es me off.
If the cost delta is the same in Germany as it is here (about $400), consider getting the Canon ipf5100 instead. It's a pricey beast to maintain, and you've got to be willing to work with a fairly crappy interface for custom paper profiles, but from a maintenance perspective, it's the most trouble-free printer I've worked with. I bought mine used from Klaus a few years back and I've never had to do more than replace the ink and maintenance carts.
p.7 #4 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
Well, I did say "beast." But I know what you mean. There's a 6100 for sale locally for $750 that I'd already have if it didn't mean losing a couch or finding a new home.
p.7 #6 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
I'm another one who has been stuck, a major reason I haven't been posting much of late.
I've got a backlog as well, but that's more a symptom than a cause. The cause seems to be more along the lines of life changes, I've just finished up with school (finishing a B.Eng as a mature student) and am back into the workforce fulltime. I've also pretty much burned out my previous main shooting interest and due to the new job am spending my time in rather different areas of my home city, which is something of an issue because so much of my shooting was done while commuting wandering around the downtown where I worked and went to school. Now I spend my days in suburbia and industrial areas which I find uninteresting photographically.
As a result, I've shot essentially nothing for a couple of months. I'm starting to get the bug again, but it's also the least interesting time of the year photographically. I'm hoping to be back in business when we start getting snow on the ground in the next couple weeks.
p.7 #7 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
Just wanted to say this thread has been quite inspiring. I have taken upon myself to build a brand new site for my photo hobby (Wordpress+Photocrati based), dig through the archives and select an appropriate set of images, and have been playing with night time cityscape photography and overcast landscapes (gotta work with what ya got ). Also finally caved in and got a used 5DII since I have found the lack of LiveView to be the only trouble I have with my 1DsII for certain types of shooting.
p.7 #8 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
freaklikeme wrote:
Well, I did say "beast." But I know what you mean. There's a 6100 for sale locally for $750 that I'd already have if it didn't mean losing a couch or finding a new home.
Well, you said "pricey beast" so I thought it was just expensive. What do you mean that it is expensive to maintain, btw? Is it more than just the inks?
p.7 #9 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
I have recently been un-stuck by checking out photography that has made it to the MOMA and the Met. I was in a rut of looking at "nice pictures" online, but the level of thought and meaning in some more celebrated work is something to aspire to.
Not to discount people that post images on FM and flickr and things like that, but there is another world out there as well - challenge yourself to set higher sights. Is that rude? Who knows, but it got me to think more critically about my own work.
p.7 #10 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
That is my intent with the photo books I buy. The more good work you are exposed to, the higher the standard you keep yourself to. That is the theory anyway
p.7 #11 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
carstenw wrote:
Well, you said "pricey beast" so I thought it was just expensive. What do you mean that it is expensive to maintain, btw? Is it more than just the inks?
Inks mostly, depending on the paper you use and how often you use it and there's also the maintenance cartridge, which is about $70 in the US. How often it needs to be replaced depends on how much you use the printer and how often the printer has to do a full cleaning (which also soaks up the ink). There are two print heads that run for $599 a pop if they need to be replaced. It also consumes quite a bit more power when it's working than a desktop printer (no printer/plotter is really efficient in power management, but LF printers are the worst). And there are ancillary one-time costs like the roll-paper feeder and the stand.
p.7 #12 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
After years of chasing good printers, I've gone to the prolab. Prices have come down quite a bit and I don't have to worry about inks etc... simplifies my life. Yes, real photo paper doesn't give all the options as a pigment print on fine art papers, but I take photos damn it... nothing wrong with looking like a photograph when I'm done!
p.7 #13 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
Nothing wrong with that at all. I wouldn't invest so much into it if I didn't genuinely enjoy the process. I love taking photos and I love printing photos, regardless of the level of effort. It's the middle bits with the computer that I want to be as simple as possible and quite often aren't.
p.7 #14 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
freaklikeme wrote:
If the cost delta is the same in Germany as it is here (about $400), consider getting the Canon ipf5100 instead. It's a pricey beast to maintain, and you've got to be willing to work with a fairly crappy interface for custom paper profiles, but from a maintenance perspective, it's the most trouble-free printer I've worked with. I bought mine used from Klaus a few years back and I've never had to do more than replace the ink and maintenance carts.
I got the old 3800 epson, and while I sometimes have to do a nozzle clean before printing, I don't feel that i waste overly much ink on the procedure. It is a big block of a printer, but as long as I have room for it, printing my own images now and then really brings the motivation back for me.
p.7 #16 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
ulrikft2, the 3800 is a very nice printer. Yours would probably not need any nozzle cleanings before printing either, if you print a nozzle check once a week or biweekly on a sheet of normal copy paper. At least my R3000 stopped doing it after I started printing a nozzle check now and then to keep fresh ink in the head. The nozzle check uses a minimal amount of ink.
Carsten, I suppose you've done the checks I suggested in the end of page 6 for your R2400 to try and revive it?
p.7 #17 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
Ah, sorry, I thought I had answered. I have recently done most of that, yes, but not quite all, so next week when I have some time, I will try again, and go through the entire list properly. The irritating thing is that I have probably wasted 100 Euro on inks trying to get this thing working again, and my motivation is relatively low, considering that for not so much money I can get a 3880 with much larger ink cartridges... But I will try again.
p.7 #18 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
Yes, seeing those ink levels visibly drop is depressing to say the least. I read somewhere that nozzle cleans will not really help with a stubborn clog: the cleaning cycles only spend ink (and can even burn the nozzles in extreme cases). Instead, one should try to dissolve the dry ink slowly over a week's time by letting the head sit on the dissolving tissue for a day, perform some nozzle checks, put another wet tissue under the head, let sit again for a day or two etc. This way, the window cleaner and new ink will slowly start dissolving the clogs inside the ink tubes.
The Lidl window cleaner is supposedly good for this, because it contains ammonia (distinct smell).
Anyway, I've already ordered a set of 3rd party inks for my R3000 from InkRepublic to keep the costs at bay. Any color mismatches should be taken care of with the colormunki profiler.
p.7 #19 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
ukkisavosta wrote:
ulrikft2, the 3800 is a very nice printer. Yours would probably not need any nozzle cleanings before printing either, if you print a nozzle check once a week or biweekly on a sheet of normal copy paper. At least my R3000 stopped doing it after I started printing a nozzle check now and then to keep fresh ink in the head. The nozzle check uses a minimal amount of ink.
Carsten, I suppose you've done the checks I suggested in the end of page 6 for your R2400 to try and revive it?
Jaakko
Thanks for the tips! Will try to do that to keep the thing running.
p.7 #20 · Getting Unstuck - How do you re-motivate yourself?
I am in the 4th year and 4th set of ink cartridges with the Epson 3800. Every year in june when the weather is dry and warm, the yellow channel clogs a little. A couple of cleaning cycles and it is good to go again. The cost of ownership has accumulated to 80% for the ink and 20% for the printer (counting the ink that came with the printer as ink cost and not printer cost).
). Also finally caved in and got a used 5DII since I have found the lack of LiveView to be the only trouble I have with my 1DsII for certain types of shooting.